You may have heard of the chemical PBB. It contaminated the food chain across the state. As many as eight million (8 million) people were exposed. It started in the small community of St. Louis.
It started in May 1973... as a supply chain shortage. Velsicol Chemical ran short of pre-printed paper bags. Because of that, the company accidentally sent as many as 20 fifty-pound bags of a flame retardant called FireMaster in place of a cattle feed supplement called NutriMaster.
FireMaster was made with polybrominated biphenyl, or as people everywhere came to know it, PBB.
By the time the error was discovered nearly a year later, PBB was in the food chain through contaminated milk and dairy products, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and eggs.
“I think it’s okay in a sense to call it an accident, uh, they were really careless.”
Ed Lorenz is a retired professor of history and political science at Alma College. He also works with the Pine River Citizens Task Force. Since 1998, it has advocated for cleaning up the contamination in St. Louis. As Lorenz explains it, the accident in 1973 was the toxic result of the political and environmental system at the time.
“They contaminated a lot of stuff, but they had good connections, politically. And so, while they got penalized like here, they struck this deal they’d shut down and demolish the plant on site, and if they did that, they’d be able to walk away scott free even though they’d contaminated the food chain of 8 ½ million people.”, Lorenz said.
One of those more than eight million is Jane Jelenek, a longtime resident, and a founder of the citizen task force.
Her father was a biology professor. He used to take his students paddling on the Pine River near the Velsicol site, observing the dead and deformed fish.
Jane remembered what her dad said about the future of the river.
“...if the plant ever shuts down, it’s gonna take a number of years, and watch-he told us to watch to see if we’d see the green turtle. He said if you see the green turtle, that means then the river’s cleaning up by itself. Well, we never did see that.”
The stories of contamination in St Louis Michigan read like a slow-motion catastrophe. Jelinek said in 1970, the state ordered Velsicol to dredge a portion of the river. The company then offered the contaminated sediment as free fill dirt for residents in the area. Forty years later, that dirt had to be excavated – a total of twelve city blocks.
The history of Velsicol contamination dates to the 1930s. But even as late as 1970, residents there may not have known the risk they faced from the company’s reckless practices.
Brittany Bayliss Fremion is an Associate Professor of History at Central MIchigan University. She created an oral history to record the stories of the people of St. Louis. She talked about a young girl who lived near the plant.
“She used to love jumping on her bike, and riding behind the trucks as they were leaving the chemical plant because the dust that they would kick up, it felt like she was riding through some kind of magical gravel shower.”
That “magical gravel shower,” of course was nothing more than contaminated dust.
Fremion said people tend to overestimate the sense of hope and promise that they can somehow control the natural world. Velsicol is part of a long history of proof that that is not the case, she said.
“Environmental history certainly teaches us that, you know, we are, as a species, part of the ecosystems in which we inhabit. Yet we often try to think ourselves outside or as separate from the environment.”
People are part of the environment...And in the case of Velsicol...responsible for repairing it.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 1978.
Estimated costs for the cleanup have put the price tag as high as one-half-billion dollars. There have been legal victories for the task force, but they have not won restitution anywhere near that figure.
There is reason for optimism with money restored to federal cleanup funds coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act passed in 2021. For the first time, cleanup is being done on all the sites connected to the Velsicol contamination.
Ed Lorenz said he’s encouraged by the work, but also frustrated...and angry.
“You know all the talk of the money for this cleanup is always focused on environmental cleanup. focuses on environmental cleanup. None of us are attempting to estimate what is the cost in human health, Lorenz said. "What’s the debt that Michigan Chemical owes to tall sorts of people across Michigan who suffered fundamental human health problems as a result of what they did? There’s just no mechanism to even do that, even though it should be done.”
In 1976, studies began on the long-term health effects of PBB, and still today, the Michigan PBB Registry encourages anyone who worked at the plant or lived in the area to have their blood levels tested for the contaminant. Studies have linked PBB exposure to cancers affecting the digestive system, an increased risk of breast cancer, and a greater likelihood of miscarriage in adult women, urinary and genital conditions in men, and thyroid problems for men and women. Illnesses that people may struggle with for a lifetime... or generations.
While the St Louis community hopes for environmental remediation … and personal health... Jane Jelenek is waiting and watching for the river to heal.
A conference held at Alma College May 18-20 marked the 50th anniversary of the PBB contamination crisis.
